A conventional food processing system includes a rotating wheel which contains chilled coolant fluid. Food products (such as extruded ribbons or sheets of food paste) are conveyed onto the outer surface of the wheel, and are quickly frozen or chilled as the rotating wheel carries them along a circular path portion to an unloading station.
However, until the present invention, it was not known how to efficiently mold sticky food (particularly, fruit paste) into pieces of desired size and shape, with controlled texture and hardness and achieve effective demolding of the product.